Let's riiiiide

Allow me to catch up on the things I've been doing but NOT blogging about...

Last month, in between weeks in London and Springfield, I rode in the Multiple Sclerosis Society's Bike MS Ride in Mount Vernon.  I rode with Team Expedia and had a fantastic time!!  I did the shortest ride possible, which is 22 miles, but some people rode nearly 175 miles over 2 days.  My goal for next year is to do the next length, which is 59 miles.  That'll definitely take some training since I've never ridden more than 27 miles or so, not even in FlyWheel spin class!

I got up to Mount Vernon the night before for a team BBQ, to check in my bike at the fairgrounds, and to get excited.  I had landed from London earlier that day (and was suuuper jet lagged), so I ditched out early and headed to the hotel around 8pm.  But it was a piece of cake to wake up at 5am the next day!  I had a quick bite at the hotel then headed to the start of the ride.  Had more breakfast and hung out with the team.  I got nerrrvous!  We waited till our start time, then they announced our team and we took off together.  We rode through Mount Vernon and then split apart once we hit the highway.  I learned that I can keep up a decently fast pace, and it was fun to pass people.  However, I was also riding a much shorter distance than other people, so who knows how I'd do on a longer course.  It was super flat, very pretty, and totally doable for someone that doesn't ride a ton (like me).  The longer courses are gorrrgeous (so I've heard) and go over Deception Pass.  Next year!

I had a really fun time (as I love events with uniforms or costumes or matching outfits, and I'm loving my bike) and can't wait for next year.  I'm hoping to wrangle up some other people to join the team next year (Amy?  Lynn?  Syd?).  Go Team Expedia!!

I look so official!

(Part of) Team Expedia!  Where you bike matters

My VP/boss Jeff and former colleague Jack (a traitor to Microsoft who wished he was biking with the Expedia team since we're way more fun, duh)

That's me on the left... I think I could work on my posture

 Look, I can point while riding over a bridge!  I am SO advanced.

Let me know if you want to join next year!!  :)

We will soon return to regularly scheduled programming

I know I'm behind on blogging, apologies.  I've been traveling like a crazy person (was in London 2 weeks ago, then Springfield last week, with the MS Ride in Mt. Vernon the weekend in between) and I have a bit of catching up to do on here.  I'm having my oral surgery this week, on Thursday, so I will have some down time at home for a few days and am hoping to catch up.

I returned to work today after being gone the last couple of weeks, and found that my desk had turned into an umbrella art installation.  I loved it!!  It was truly a work of art; some of those umbrellas were really finagled in there!

My desk... somewhere under there!

The love note, signed from CAS Umbrella Family

We have a joke at work, as a coworker once tossed her garbage in the umbrella canister, thinking it was a garbage.  So they turned it into a trash can.  I love it.

After I removed the full-sized umbrellas, I found all of these little tiny (crafted from scratch!) umbrellas stuck EVERYWHERE.  Plus there's a lovely photo from the MS Ride on my monitor.

And, shall I mention that I got a promotion at work last week?!  Woo hoo!  :)

Will catch up on everything else soon!

DUH-lete (my crappy attitude)!

Okay, I've snapped out of my crappy weekend feeling.  Hooray!!  Had a great talk (and free Starbucks) at work with my VP yesterday, got a lot done at work, met up with my friend Brittany for a delicious grown-up ladies dinner at The Coterie Room, watched the Bachelorette finale a day late with Lynn (Team 1 F! woo hoo!), and received a REALLY awesome gift for cat-sitting my neighbor cat Lola.  Then today I was able to get my bike tire filled up fully (took a few tries... but I think I've figured it out) and went for a nice 12 mile ride.  I knew I'd feel better.

I'm still on the lookout for crazy ladies in my neighborhood though...

My friend Karimi sent me a link for a pretty awesome blog called The Everywhereist.  She said the author sounds like someone I'd be friends with, and she lives in Seattle and travels a ton (and is really funny to boot).  Karimi meant to send me the link a while ago, and coincidentally, the author posted about a month ago that she has a brain tumor and was undergoing surgery.  I'm telling you, these stinking brain tumors are all over the place!!  She has a type of astrocytoma and I'm going to reach out soon.  As crappy as having a brain tumor can be, I love expanding my little tumor dominating network.  :)

"Compliment" of the day

Today at work a very sweet girl that I see every once in a while was in my department's area.  She doesn't know about my tumor sitch and has no idea why I cut my hair.  I haven't talked to her about my haircut either (or spoken to her in a couple of months, really).  Before even saying hello, she let out this doozie:

"I'm still traumatized by your haircut!  It was sooo long and now it's sooo short!"

Uhhhh.... traumatized?!  Really?  She had a somewhat concerned look on her face too.  I just kind of laughed and told her that it's been a really good change for me.  What else do you say?!  I honestly think it's kind of funny, and I'm positive that if she knew why I cut my hair, she'd feel awful for saying that.  Oh, people...

Here's my advice, friends.  Please don't let any bold fashion or drastic hair or makeup cause you any trauma tomorrow.  With the rain that's arrived, there will be hoods and damp heads out.  Please stay safe mentally when seeing such outerwear changes on people around you.  And if those rainboots and frizzy rained hairdos make you uncomfortable, please don't express that to the wearer.  Unless you're complimenting my sweet aubergine Hunters, in which case, go right ahead.

Be safe.  :)

Snapped back

It seems that I have snapped out of my little funk, so I'm feeling good!  Not sure what did it, but knowing I wasn't at my best and that it would get better over time helped.  If only I could figure out what the magic trick was...

On the travel front, I have a fun trip in the making.  I'll be spending 3 weeks in Europe for work next month, with most of the weekdays in Paris, except for 3 days in Munich and 2 or 3 days in Marseille.  I'm planning to visit my friends Jen and Jeff in Zurich and Courtney and Karl and Ryan in Amsterdam over the weekends.  I'm really looking forward to it!!  Perhaps I'll have some more Parisian observation-like entries?!  I'm likely flying out 3 weeks from tomorrow, so I've got some booking to do!!

I'm really excited for the Stupid Cancer Happy Hour tomorrow with a friend.  Here's what it's about:

Just to be clear: I do not have cancer.  I'm just in a very similar boat and the BTSG was a nightmare.

I'm venturing back out into the (online) dating world, although I do NOT plan to share any details of those endeavors on here.  (Unless they're hilarious, that is.)  But I have noticed 1 huge difference from when I've done it before to now.  Previously, I felt a little popular during online dating, if I can say that without sounding conceited.  I got winks or emails or indications of general interest on a pretty regular basis, probably averaging to 1 or 2 new contacts a day.  I probably had maybe 15-20 new profile views per day.  

This time, I added a handful of short-hair pics (obviously!) and the traffic has gone down SO MUCH!!!!!!  Noticeably so.  I get a contacted maybe once every 3 or 4 days on average, and my profile views can be counted on 1 hand each day.  Maybe, if it's a big day.  I had suspicions before my haircut that guys wouldn't like it, but then all of my guy friends told me they loved it, so I figured I was wrong.  Well, the online dating community doesn't feel the same way.  I'm not sure if the people that know me in real life have a different opinion of my 'do because they know the story behind it, who knows.  What I do know is that the number of winks and emails and profile views is really irrelevant (especially when it's mostly riff raff anyway) and that there ARE guys with potential on there.  So I'm not too worried about it.  Just making an observation.  :)

Alright, I'm off to an exciting Friday night of a post-blogging walk on the treadmill.  I know; please contain your jealousy.  Have a fantastic weekend!!!

Oh so thankful

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early)!  This year's adventure has helped me gain some perspective, and I have a LOT to be thankful for.  Don't we all, though?!?!  In no particular order...

• My family, especially my seester Amy and cousin Steph, who have all gone to appointments with me, taken lots of time off of work to take care of me after surgery, given good advice when I'm feeling anxious or scared or sad, and just been an unending source of love and support.
• My friends, who have made me food, taken me out to dinner to get me out of the house, shared kind words, taken me to appointments, stayed with me after surgery, and also given great advice and been an outlet for me to share my feelings.  They also keep things fun and help to distract me when needed, and are another never-ending source of love and support.
• A job that I enjoy that is low stress, has sweet travel perks, is for a company I love, and comes with fun, supportive coworkers and bosses that have been amazing and flexible.  I could NOT ask for more with my job this year.
• The generosity of my family and friends (and even people I've never even met) with their donations to the National Brain Tumor Society.  I tear up just thinking about it (seriously).
• New friendships and connections with my fellow tumor-dominating lady friends (Krystal, Jess, and Sara).  While I wouldn't wish a stinking brain tumor on anyone, it is comforting to talk with people who are going through the same thing and knowing that I'm not the only one.
• Amazing doctors, some of the best in the country, right at my fingertips.  They are experienced, very skilled, knowledgeable, and have a great bedside manner.  I'm the #1 fan of my neurosurgeon Dr. S and am also loving my neurooncologist Dr. M.
• Great health insurance!!!!!!
• An apartment that I love (all 460 sq. ft. of it), in a nice neighborhood, with a charming view of Lake Union, a kickass rooftop deck, and very supportive management staff.  They gave me a spa gift certificate before surgery and let the people that stayed with me after surgery park in the garage for free.  They all know my name and always ask how I'm doing when I see them (and not just to be polite).  Plus they gave out free Costco pumpkin pies to all residents yesterday!  YUM.
• Health!  Minus a stinking tumor, but nobody's perfect...
• Us Weekly magazines and Starbucks, which became my daily routine during my post-surgery tumor vacation (plus the aforementioned rooftop deck) as I started to venture out.
• TiVo, because it rocks.
• My iPhone and my Garmin, which help navigate me daily now.
• Music... my outlet, my release, my love.  Now if I could only narrow down the songs for my upcoming Best of 2011...
• Travel!  In 2011, I went to Shanghai, Seoul, London, Paris, Boston, New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Missouri, San Francisco, Portland, Victoria, and down the entire West Coast.  I can't WAIT to make 2012 travel plans.  If anyone wants to go somewhere, let me know!
• Pixie haircuts and hats being in style this year.  ;)
• My new perspective and priorities in life: happiness and health.  It's a short list, but the things on it could NOT be more important to me.

What are you thankful for this year?

Day one at work: check

I survived my first day back at work!  It started a little rough, when I went out to my bus stop (across the street from my apartment) to find it has a huge new "Bus Stop Closed" sign on it, due to construction.  I hustled to the next stop and made it on the bus.  I even made it all the way to Bellevue uneventfully.  How exciting and grown-up of me!  ;)

Two bus rides and a short uphill walk to work was a little much apparently, as I walked it fast (that's what us tall people do) and got to work a little lightheaded.  I'll take it slower tomorrow.

It's sort of a tradition in my department to decorate someone's desk when they've been out on vacation or leave or anything like that.  While my work friends told me they wouldn't do anything to my desk, I couldn't help but laugh when I rolled in to a HUGE Hershey kiss-filled set of lips on my desk, plus some gorgeous glamour shots of 2 of my coworkers (it's a long story...).

The flash was a little too strong for the chocolate lips, plus ye olde David decorating my wall

Ryan in a leopard cowboy hat says "welcome to my classy audit area" very nicely

Oh, and did I mention that my chair was taped to my desk, my candy bowl (since I look like a receptionist, hence the Hershey kisses) was taped to my desk, my phone was taped to its cradle, and my computer cords were sneakily unplugged?

No kleenex left behind

A lovely little surprise (taped, of course) to my chair: woop woop woo hoo!

My eyes got pretty tired from gazing at my computer for so long today, to a point where my head hurt a bit.  But the shorter than normal workday helps, and I'm hoping/expecting that things will get better every day.  Plus I have some lovely new decor at my desk to look at, so that helps too.  :)

Thanks Expedia friends for a good first day back!  

Wish me luck!

I'm headed back to work tomorrow after 4 weeks off!  I feel good about my recovery and healing but am a little nervous about getting back into a regular schedule and sitting at a computer all day.  My doctors recommended in my work release note that I start off with 6 hour days for the first couple of weeks before moving back to a normal full-time schedule, so I think that'll help me have a smooth transition back immensely.

I haven't had many pictures on here lately, so here's one from my cousin (and guest blogger) Steph's birthday last night at Cork!.  Please disregard my ridiculous sunburn.  My last leisurely day on the roof of my building was a bit sunnier than I thought, apparently.

Strating cousins, aged 30 and 30(+1), respectively

I also have to give a shout-out and huge CONGRATULATIONS to my sister Amy and her new fiancé Eric, as they very recently got engaged!  We're excited to have you in the family, Eric!

Ahh, looove...

If you see a tall girl in a hat looking confused in the bus tunnels tomorrow, please help me out!  ;)